The 15 Best Doctor Who Monsters Ever

Doctor Who has debuted its latest menacing monster - an armoured antagonist that looks something like a grasshopper crossed with a tank. In over 50 years, the world's longest-running sci-fi series has introduced us to hundreds of weird and wonderful creatures - but which is the best?
Here's our definitive ranking - from 1963 to 2015 - of the most memorable and terrifying monsters (and we're not counting humanoid wrongdoers, so no Master!).

15. The Haemovores

1980s Doctor Who can sometimes come in for an unfair drubbing - but there was still plenty of imagination, wit and inventive horror on show when the show was at its best.
'The Curse of Fenric' - airing as part of the final 'classic' series in 1989 - is a strong case for the defense, introducing the vampiric Haemovores - a species of evolved humans who lurked eerily under the sea and possessed razor-sharp claws and suckers for feeding.

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14. The Silence

The first nu-Who monster to make our list, the Silence - like many of Steven Moffat's scariest creations - have a great gimmick. Ironically though, the reason they're so memorable is because you never remember them.
With a horrifying appearance inspired by Edvard Munch's painting The Scream, the Silence are a secret sect with the ability to make you forget their very existence the moment you take your eyes off of them.
Think about it - you might have just seen one... and you'd never know!

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13. The Wirrn

Everything from Forbidden Planet to The Thing from Another World has been cited as an inspiration for 1979's classic sci-fi horror flick Alien - but you also have to wonder if the filmmakers had seen 1975's Doctor Who serial, 'The Ark in Space' - Tom Baker's second outing on the show.
Robert Holmes' skin-crawling classic introduces insectoid parasites The Wirrn, and the tale that follows resembles a fusion of Alien and The Quatermass Experiment, as the last remnants of humankind come under siege from alien invaders.

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12. The Axons

The Axons are one of Peter Capaldi's favorite Doctor Who monsters ("I'd quite like the Axons to show up again," he revealed last year, "but done with our modern CGI and make-up techniques".) These golden beauties / beasties have a ton of untapped potential.
The Axons appeared just once - taking on Jon Pertwee's Time Lord in 1971's 'The Claws of Axos' - but their memorable BAFTA-esque appearance and Bernard Holley's wonderful vocal performance as Axos has seen them hailed as one of Doctor Who's finest one-hit wonders.

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11. The Zygons

These alien shape-shifters, who debuted in 1975's 'Terror of the Zygons', were another great one-and-done monster - until Steven Moffat opted to bring them back in Doctor Who's 50th anniversary special.
They'd remained popular with fans in the intervening 38 years, thanks to a brilliantly odd, original and grotesque costume design - and showrunner Moffat has revealed that he'd love to bring them back again.

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10. Gas Mask Zombies

"Are you my Mummy?" Though they appeared on Doctor Who but once, almost a decade ago in Steven Moffat's superlative two-parter 'The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances', the Gas Mask Zombies remain an unforgettably eerie threat.
The result of a medical mishap by a batch of nanogenes - sub-atomic robots intended to heal rather than harm - the 'Empty Child' and his clan were the most unsettling use of a gas mask in Doctor Who since the violent opening to 1975's 'Genesis of the Daleks'.

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9. The Giant Maggots

Bit of a rogue pick, this, but if you ask a punter with only a passing knowledge of Doctor Who which classic series monsters sticks in their mind, chances are the giant maggots from 1973's Jon Pertwee eco-thriller 'The Green Death' might be in with a shout.
Sure, some of these grisly grubs were created from inflated condoms - but the surprisingly effective, memorably skin-crawling end result effectively belies these low-tech origins.

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8. The Great Intelligence

A sinister sentience - disembodied and on the hunt for physical existence - the Great Intelligence originally appeared in a pair of Patrick Troughton adventures back in the 1960s, wreaking havoc with a pack of robotic Yeti.
The Intelligence returned to Doctor Who after a 44-year gap in 2012 Christmas special 'The Snowmen', sans its furry pets and now taking the form of one Walter Simeon (Richard E Grant). The non-corporeal nuisance was apparently destroyed for good in the following year's 'The Name of the Doctor'.

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7. The Silurians / The Sea Devils

This is a bit of a cheat, but the Silurians and Sea Devils were technically related. Both are prehistoric reptiles who ruled the Earth long before man, with one variant best adapted to life on land and the other to surviving beneath the waves.
After appearances in the '70s and '80s, the Silurians were reinvented for the modern series - with one of their kind, Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh), becoming a popular recurring character - though we're still holding out for a Sea Devils comeback. Any chance of an aquatic adventure for Mr Capaldi?

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6. The Sontarans

Another Doctor Who menace with a fantastic gimmick at its heart - on December 15, 1973, the British public got their first glimpse of a Sontaran, with Linx (Kevin Lindsay) removing his half-sphere helmet, only to reveal a head the same shape underneath!
Their peculiar appearance and unique backstory - a clone race bred to be warriors - has seen the Sontarans endure into the 21st century, with recurring character Strax (Dan Starkey) having served as a comic foil to both Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi.

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5. The Ice Warriors

It's the moral complexity of the Ice Warriors compared to some of their peers that makes this race such a compelling returning foe for the Doctor. Originally introduced as a straightforward threat in 1967's 'The Ice Warriors', they've since served as both friends and foes to our Time Lord lead.
Originating on the planet Mars, the Ice Warriors were represented by a rogue agent, Grand Marshal Skaldak, when they made their triumphant comeback in 2013's 'Cold War', - but if you're reading this, Steven, we'd love to see them return en masse!

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4. The Weeping Angels

Without question the most popular and effective monster to be introduced to Doctor Who since the show stormed back onto our screens in 2005, the Weeping Angels have proven a persistent thorn in the Doctor's side - appearing in an additional five episodes since their debut in 2007's seminal 'Blink'.
Again, there's a natty gimmick at play here. Take your eyes off an Angel, even for an instant, and it'll be your end. Keep your gaze fixed and it remains solid stone. In a perfect example of how classic Doctor Who can transform the mundane into the menacing, this brilliant twist transformed every statue in the world into fodder for children's nightmares.

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3. The Autons

There's something ineffably uncanny about a shop window dummy, and Doctor Who took advantage of their inherent creepiness to brilliant effect in 1970's 'Spearhead From Space' with the introduction of the Nestene Consciousness, an alien intelligence able to animate otherwise lifeless plastic.
The sequence in which a cluster of these 'Autons' break free from their shop front prisons and stalk the streets of London, wreaking havoc, is perhaps the most iconic in Doctor Who history.

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2. The Daleks

It's no surprise that the Doctor's oldest foes have survived countless attempts to kill them off for good over the past 50-plus years - the Daleks are quite simply irresistible.
Each of their parts comes together to form a very special whole - the hostile 'dislike of the unlike' attitude invented by writer Terry Nation, their remarkable design devised by Raymond Cusick and their harsh, metallic voices developed by voice actors Peter Hawkins and David Graham.
The Daleks are unlike any other alien seen before or since - but are they unmatched in terms of style and scares? Perhaps not...

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1. The Cybermen

In what's bound to be a controversial decision, we're opting to place the Cybermen in the top spot.
Daleks are scary, sure - as Steven Moffat once aptly put it, they're "insane tanks" - but there's just something about the concept of the Cybermen - that idea of losing your humanity and swapping out flesh for cold, hard steel - that sends an even bigger shiver down the spine.
It's perhaps easier to get the Cybermen wrong - too often they can be misused as stomping robotic muscle - but when it gets them right, playing up the themes of body horror which originally inspired creators Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis back in the '60s, Doctor Who can produce some of its finest, most memorable and scariest episodes.

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